Influence of principals’ demographic variables on effective management of secondary schools in jalingo education zone, taraba state, nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated influence of principals’ demographic variables on effective management of secondary schools in Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State, Nigeria.  Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study consisted of seven Thousand, one hundred and twenty-one (7,121) teachers in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State. The sample size comprised a total of 988 teachers made up of, 590 males and 398 females in fifty- three (53) selected Secondary Schools. The selected Secondary Schools consisted of 24 public and 39 private secondary schools in Jalingo Education Zone. Purposive Sampling technique was used to select male and female respondents, from urban and rural, public and private secondary Schools in Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State, Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-designed questionnaire titled, “Demographic variables and school effectiveness questionnaire (DVSEQ)” The instrument was validated by two experts in Educational Administration and Planning and one in Educational Measurement and Evaluation, all from the Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Taraba State University, Jalingo. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through Cronbach alpha method, with a reliability coefficient of 0.793. Data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation in answering the research questions, while the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using independent samples t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings of the study revealed that principals’ gender and educational qualifications all have significant influence on effective management of secondary schools in Jalingo Education Zone Taraba State, Nigeria. The study therefore, concluded that principals’ demographic variables significantly influence effective management of secondary schools in Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State, Nigeria. The study thus recommended that the government should continue to organize regular training for both male and female principals to make them imbibe more managerial skills for optimal performance in administration, among others.